Bing iPhone App Pulled from International App Stores

Report claims Microsoft itself removed the app, although quite late

Bing iPhone application screenshots

A report says that Microsoft took three months to discover it was actually offering the Bing iPhone app to all of Apple’s App Stores, whereas the software was originally aimed at the US market only. However, a statement from the Windows maker (included in the same report) reveals that Microsoft “noticed the error within 24 hours” and immediately proceeded with taking steps to remove Bing from international App Stores.

The rather confusing report by Neowin claims that, “Microsoft has removed the Bing iPhone application from all international Apple App Stores except the United States.The Bing application began disappearing from various countries App Store's on Monday.” It then claims that a Microsoft spokesperson was able to confirm the move, citing the person in question as saying that the company had accidentally made the application available to countries outside the U.S, when Bing for iPhone officially debuted last year. The statement included in the report has been reproduced below:

“When we released the iPhone application we inadvertently made it available to all countries in which the Apple Marketplace has a presence. We noticed the error within 24 hours and took steps to remove availability for all countries except for the US,” the Microsoft spokesperson reportedly said in an email sent to Neowin.

Softpedia note

The Bing iPhone app is known to have been released in December 2009, yet the MS spokesperson claims the company spotted the error in 24 hours and immediately proceeded with removing the app from all territories except from The States. The NeoWin report was posted by Andrew Lyle some ten hours ago (at the time of this writing). Something doesn’t add up, especially when the report actually goes to mention that, “It's not clear why it took three months to remove the availability for all countries except the U.S.” If this account is accurate, the Microsoft spokesperson’s statement should be roughly three months old.

Softpedia readers living in the US can download Bing for free onto their iPhones and iPod touches using the link below. The software requires iPhone OS 3.0 and doesn’t work with first-generation iPhones and iPod touch models.